Connecticut school emergency plan law

Who must have a school security and safety plan in Connecticut?

Connecticut law requires each local and regional board of education to develop and carry out a school security and safety plan for each school it runs; a 2026 law, P.A. 26-1, left that duty in place. Each board must set up a school security and safety committee at each school, which helps write the school's plan and runs it. The committee must include a local police officer, a local first responder, a teacher, the school's designated safety administrator and a mental health professional. It also includes a parent or guardian of a student at the school, and any other member the board considers necessary. A parent or guardian on the committee may not see information reported to it if that would violate FERPA (the federal student privacy law). The committee list in the statute does not name a special education representative; that appears in state guidance, and boards can add one as "any other person" they consider necessary. A 2024 State Department of Education memo says a special education representative is required on each school's committee, and the state's plan standards list one among the members. Charter schools are subject to all state laws governing public schools, unless a waiver is granted. State emergency management guidance treats charter schools and schools run by Regional Education Service Centers as covered by the plan law. That guidance lists the public schools covered: local and regional districts, Regional Education Service Centers, state charter schools, state technical high schools and publicly endowed high schools.

What must the plan contain?

Plans must be based on the school security and safety plan standards from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). Since July 1, 2025, plans must also be based on the Department of Education's January 28, 2025 guidance on immigration activities. Boards must update each school's plan to include protocols for dealing with a federal immigration authority that comes to the school in person, including at least one administrator at each school named to deal with it. By law, the state's plan standards must:

Boards must assess the security and weak points of each school every two years and develop a plan for each school. Since July 1, 2025, the standards must have the school climate committee collect and review reports of disturbing or threatening behavior that may not count as bullying, and pass them on as needed to the school climate coordinator and the security and safety committee. By a 2019 law, each board had to revise every school's plan by January 1, 2020 to cover emergency communication plans for students who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind. Such a plan covers how the student is alerted and how the student's needs are met in an emergency. For a deaf or hard-of-hearing child, the emergency communication plan sits in the child's IEP or Section 504 language and communication plan. A separate statute requires boards and private school leaders to have an emergency action plan for serious sports injuries at athletic events; that statute does not mention the security and safety plan.

What do the state plan standards add?

The current plan standards from the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (DEMHS) are dated July 2025; these points are agency guidance. They say school plans are an annex (attachment) to the town's Local Emergency Operations Plan. They say each school must build a first-responder reference kit that includes laminated floor plans. The DEMHS plan template has an annex on accounting for all students and staff and on family reunification. The standards say plans must have emergency communication procedures for deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind students, and emergency action plans for school athletic events. DEMHS guidance says a district may submit one plan for the whole district if it has a separate annex for each school. DESPP must re-evaluate and update the standards every three years, and the Department of Education must send them to all public schools.

How often must the plan be reviewed?

Each board must review its plans every year and update them if needed.

Is the plan submitted or shared?

Each board must submit every school's plan to DESPP every year. The statute sets no submission date; it says only "annually". DEMHS guidance asks boards to submit plans electronically to their DEMHS Regional Coordinator by November 1 each year. The standards must also require boards to report every year to DESPP on fire drills and crisis response drills; the statute sets no due date. DEMHS guidance says that drill report goes to the Regional Coordinator by July 1. DEMHS guidance says it does not approve plans; it gives districts a checklist to check them against the standards.

How do schools work with police and first responders?

A local police officer and a local first responder must sit on each school's safety committee. The standards must require local police and other local public safety officials to evaluate, score and give feedback on fire drills and crisis response drills. Each board must replace a fire drill with a crisis response drill once every three months. From July 1, 2026, boards must develop the format of crisis response drills together with the local police department and in line with the new state crisis response protocols; before, the law said only "in consultation with" police.

What training is tied to the plan?

Each school's plan must provide violence prevention training in the way the plan sets out. Since July 1, 2025, the standards must require each school's plan to give every school employee an orientation on the plan.

Is the plan confidential?

From July 1, 2026, boards must make the parts of a plan that are not exempt from disclosure available to members of the school community on request. Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act exempts records whose release there are reasonable grounds to believe may create a safety risk; its examples include emergency plans and emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation plans. For a town, district or regional agency's records, whether they may be withheld under that exemption is decided by the DESPP Commissioner after consulting the agency's chief executive. Records covered by the exemption must still be given to a law enforcement agency that asks for them.

What changed recently?

P.A. 26-1 (SB 298) was signed on March 3, 2026. From the 2027-28 school year, boards must make sure each school's security and safety committee works with the school climate committee to plan crisis response drills that put students' and staff's physical and psychological safety first. From that year, crisis drills must be trauma-informed, take students' and staff's past traumatic experiences into account, and be designed to prevent emotional harm, with mental health professionals taking part throughout each drill. A crisis drill held with students may not include an active-assailant simulation or simulated violence with highly sensory elements such as fake attackers, firearms, gunfire sounds, blood or injuries. A drill held outside the school day only for staff, first responders and other school volunteers may include an active-assailant simulation. This is allowed, not required. Students with a cognitive, physical or sensory disability must get accommodations during crisis drills, to the extent practicable. Each crisis drill must use the state definition, standard terms and response and debriefing guidance produced under § 44 of the act, and be evaluated with the template developed under § 44, which is due by April 1, 2027. P.A. 25-1 (HB 7066, signed March 3, 2025) added the immigration guidance basis to the plan law. 2025 HB 7009, which proposed to rewrite § 10-222m, stalled in the Senate; its last action was a favorable report, tabled for the calendar.